When the federal health-care mandate takes effect next year, it could put a new financial burden on some people who don’t already have insurance.

But an estimated 869,000 North Carolinians will be eligible for tax credits aimed at softening the blow, according to a national nonprofit that has studied the issue.

The supplements are designed to make it easier for many individuals and families to cope with the complex changes of the new law. Here’s a rundown of how you may be affected:

What’s changing?

The affordable care act is putting individuals, families and small business owners in control of their health care, with the largest middle-class tax cut for health care in history.

Americans without insurance will be able to choose the coverage that works best for them in a new open, competitive insurance market. Advocates say it will pool buying power and give Americans new affordable choices of private insurance plans, which will have to compete for their business based on cost and quality.

So everyone will have to be insured?

Yes. The new law will require everyone to be enrolled in a health-insurance plan that meets basic minimum standards. If you aren’t, you may be required to pay a penalty.

What if you like the insurance coverage you have?

You can keep it, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

When will people begin buying health insurance through the new process?

Open enrollment in the new health insurance marketplace will begin Oct. 1. The policies people purchase will take effect in January 2014.

How much will it cost?

That depends. For job-based health plans, employers will decide how much of the premium to pay on behalf of workers and their families.

Beginning in January 2014, if your job doesn’t offer health coverage, you can apply for a tax credit to help pay for coverage purchased through the new marketplace. Small business owners can also qualify for that assistance.

The structure of the tax credits means that people will be protected from having to spend more than a set percentage of their income on health insurance premiums, officials say.

Who will be eligible for the new tax credits?

About 869,000 North Carolinians will be eligible in 2014, based on a simulation run by Families USA, a nonprofit health care advocacy group enlisted to study the impacts.

Most of those people will be in working families and will have incomes between two and four times the poverty level. For example, a family of four with a household income of between $47,100 and $94,200 will likely be eligible.

Because the size of the tax credits will be determined on a sliding scale based on income, those with the lowest incomes will receive the largest tax credits. Officials say it will ensure that the assistance is targeted to the people who need it most.

Officials who crafted the health care law assumed that uninsured people with incomes below 100 percent of the poverty level will be enrolled in Medicaid.

You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or twitter.com/GazetteMike.About 28,000 residents in Gaston and Lincoln counties are expected to qualify for health insurance tax credits. Here’s a breakdown of the people in that group: